Sunday, July 1, 2018

CWP, 1 July 2018 Anno Domini

Greetings Sheepdogs,

Happy Independence Day!

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, whoever does not have a sword should sell his coat and buy a sword.”– Book of Luke 22:36, New Life Version of the Bible This is a transliteration of an ancient text. The sword was the standard sidearm of the time. Jesus is saying that self-defense is more important than staying warm in the winter. A modern translation would be, “Then Jesus said to His disciples,whoever does not have a pistol should sell his smart phone and buy a pistol.”

***** Mindset *****

Don't go to stupid places. Don't do stupid things.Don't hang out with stupid people.-- John Farnam

Skill Set: A Confident Mindset http://www.thetacticalwire.com/features/a876207f-83cb-4b80-a889-9b27d6f0fd2bExcerpt:Faith is another important component. Having faith in your skills and abilities is important, but it’s nothing compared to the confidence created through a solid religious foundation. I have faith that I will win. I don’t have to fret over the outcome of the battle. If it is my Lord’s will that I should personally be defeated then I am assured it’s still a victory - towards a greater glory. I cannot lose. Faith creates confidence.

The techniques may seem difficult and complicated. That is because you have never done them before. With practice, the techniques will become natural and comfortable. Later, you may wonder why you bothered to take a class that taught you things that were so easy and obvious. When you start teaching your friends and children, you will understand.

If you see anything unsafe, yell STOP! It is your duty to maintain a safe range. If you drop your pistol, let it hit the ground, then safely (with your trigger finger in the register position, not on the trigger) pick it up. It will not fire. Modern pistols have internal safety mechanisms that prevent them from firing when dropped. If you try to grab your pistol as it is falling, there’s a good chance you will fire the pistol and hit something that you don’t want to.

Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until the weapon is pointed at the target and you have decided to fire. Failure to obey this rule may cause others to commit homicide. In Lebanon, TN two police officers were in a high speed chase of a suspect. When the suspect finally pulled over, one officer approached from the driver's side and one approached from the passenger side. The officer on the driver's side tripped and fell. Because his finger was on the trigger, instead of in the register position, he fired his pistol. The officer on the passenger side heard the gun shot, saw the other officer fall, and concluded that the suspect had shot the officer. So,the passenger side officer shot and killed the suspect, as the suspect sat in the driver's seat of the car.http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=12389244Sorry, WKRN took the story off their web site.

If the instructor teaches you anything that seems crazy, stupid, or unsafe, please tell the instructor immediately.

If you don’t understand what you are supposed to do, ask the instructor. Don’t think that you can watch others and figure it out. That would be dangerous.

I know training can be difficult. Let me share some words of encouragement that my teacher told me, that I believe apply to all training regimens. "Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material. It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an opportunity to get even smarter." -- Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Scienceand other stuff at Stanford University

Marksmanship and the manual of arms is a matter of technique, not strength. If you cannot rack the slide of the pistol, it is because you have never done it before or you are not doing it correctly. With the proper technique and practice you will be able to do it easily. In a month you will wonder why you had such a hard time doing it before. The answer is that you had never done it before (or weren’t doing it correctly). Many things are hard to do at first, but become easy with practice. Of course, one has to have a good attitude and make a good faith effort.

A right handed shooter, who is shooting with both eyes open and hitting to the left of the intended target is shooting at the wrong image. Stick your thumb out at arm’s length and place it over a distant object with both eyes open. If you focus on your thumb, you will see two images of the distant object. If you focus on the distant object, you will see two images of your thumb. Close one eye at a time and you will see how far your thumb moves relative to the distant object. When aiming your pistol, focus on the front sight and close your non-aiming eye. Just for the fraction of a second it takes to release the shot.

Why do we sleep?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWULB9Aoopc You must sleep after training. My computer science teacher in high school, Mr. Lawrence, told us, "If you can't solve the problem, make sure you understand the problem and then go to sleep. When you wake up, you will have the answer." I have found this to always be true. My physics professors also told me similar things.

Why you have to practice support hand only shooting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3zM2EOGbhE The lady's right hand was wounded in the initial exchange of gun fire.
She immideately transferred her pistol to her left hand and continued
fighting. She drover off the bank robbers.

Training in adverse conditions First, once I got good and wet, my shirt was clinging to my undershirt. It took an aggressive draw stroke to clear the outer garment sufficiently and make an efficient presentation. One should always practice an aggressive draw stroke, just in case it gets wet or the wind is blowing strongly from a direction that pins your outer clothing to you. Next, the grip texture on my Boresight Solutions Glock 17 worked just fine, even when my hands were soaking wet. The support hand, however, is mostly gripping wet flesh. You really need to clamp down with that support hand to keep the grip together in multiple shot strings, especially when your hands are wet. The late Pat Rogers often said that we don’t always get to train when it’s a sunny 70 degrees, with an impossibly blue sky and cotton-ball clouds. He was right. The next time you’re going shooting and it starts to rain, stick around and get used to it. It’s just part of being properly prepared.-- Tom Givens

Accept your wobble. If you achieve a surprise trigger break,you will get good hits, no matter how much your sights look likethey are wobbling. Yes, actually it is magic. (Any sufficientlyadvanced technology will appear as magic to the ignorant. God'screation, the human, is very advanced technology.) Okay, Coach, so what's the scientific explanation that'sgoing to satisfy my secular mind? Strive for a surprise break to defeat your autonomic nervous system, thereby releasing the shot before any flinch, jerk, or push. [Your autonomic nervous system is your low level instinctual system that automatically anticipatesthe recoil and report, and reacts in anticipation of these events. You cannot train yourself not to react, because it is a reflex response (as blinking when something approaches your eye or kicking when the doctor taps you below the kneecap). So, we are defeating the autonomic nervous system by not allowing the brain to know exactly when the shot will be released, so the anticipatory reaction to the shot does not occur before the shot.] You are not intentionally firing the pistol; rather you are allowing your subconscious to fire the pistol. Your subconscious is much better at estimating time and distance than your conscious. (Thanks to Col. Greg Kitchens, USMC for this explanation.) If you are having difficulty achieving a surprise break, try this. Touch the trigger. Take the slack out of the trigger. Apply 1/8th pressure. Smoothly increase to 2/8th pressure. Gradually increase to 3/8th pressure. Gently increase to 4/8th pressure. I guarantee the pistol will fire before you reach 8/8th pressure. And because you were never intending to fire the shot, you will get a surprise break. Right-handed shooters who are scattering their rounds low left are not getting a surprise break, rather they are anticipating the shot and pushing against the anticipated recoil before the bullet exists the muzzle. Left-handed shooters who lack a surprise break will scatter low right.

Concealed-Carry Safety . . . In the Bathroomhttps://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2018/6/1/concealed-carry-safetyin-the-bathroom/ I believe the instructors cited in this article are wrong. The best thing to do with your pistol when using the bathroom is to keep your pistol holstered. "The primary cause of negligent discharges is unnecessary gun handling." -- John Farnam So, just keep your pistol in its holster as youdrop your pants (or whatever) to use the bathroom.

The AOJ (Ability, Opportunity, and Jeopardy) modelworks well for sworn law enforcement officers,but not so much for civilians. A better model for civilians would be ADEE (Avoid, Disengage, Evade, Escape).-- Skip Gochenour

If there is not enough contrast between your sights and the target to align your sights, move your sights off of the target to a higher contrast background, align your sights there, and then move your sights onto the target. With practice, you can make this technique work reliably. Remember, sight alignment is far more important than sight movie.

Do not be overly concerned with your pistol. The surgeon is not known by his scalpel. He has no favorite scalpel. He has a skill, any scalpel will do. (I have seen a tracheotomy preformed with a steak knife grabbed off a dinner table.) Similarly, you should concentrate on honing your skill, any pistol will do. A person will become comfortable with anything he practices. Sentimental or personal preferences have no place in combat.

Cut serrations on the back of the slide to allow reliable racking. Cut serrations on the front of the slide to allow reliable chamber checks. The serrations should be angled so that when your hands are slippery your hands will slip into the pistol, not off of the pistol. Deburr and polish after cutting the serrations. Otherwise, you may cut up your hands.

One of my students was experimenting with suspenders to hold up her gun belt, because it is heavy with all the ammunition in the pistol and spare magazines, and such. Standard use of suspenders with two straps in the front and one strap in the back did not work for her, because she has breasts that interfered with the straps. So, she wore the suspenders backwards, one strap in the front and two straps in the back. She moved her belt buckle from centered under her navel to a one o'clock or two o'clock position (she is right handed). This worked for her. Everyone is different. It's worth experimenting. Push up bras (generally speaking) not only push the breast up, but also together to achieve a certain look. Some sports bras will hold the breasts apart so there is no rubbing between the suspender strap and the breasts.

May I recommend gunsmith Richard Modzelewski?He is a graduate of Colorado School of Trades' gunsmithing program and a former Marine.Echo Three Armory214 North Horton Parkway Chapel Hill, TN 37034(931)364-5486Echo3Armory@gmail.com

May I suggest you get an eye exam and eye glasses or contact lenses that allow you to focus on your front sight with your aiming eye (hopefully your dominant eye) when your eyes are relaxed. Your mind will concentrate on what your eye focuses on. If you focus on your front sight, you will know where your pistol is pointed and you will hit your intended target. If you focus on the target, your front sight will wander off and you will never notice it. Hence, you won't hit what you think you are aiming at. Yes, this is extremely difficult. Nature and instinct will force you to focus on the threat to your life. But, if you do, you will miss. And every miss is damaging property and injuring innocent bystanders, perhaps killing them. So, by training and practice you must learn to focus on your front sight while shooting.

***** Instructors *****

Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:"We are not God’s gift to our students.Our students are God’s gift to us."

Please do a thorough equipment inspection, at the start of every class,to make sure the pistol and holster function properly.

You have to teach the fundamentals. Never assume the student knows anything. And be aware that the student may know things that are false. Because they have learned all kinds of neat stuff from TV and movies. Keanu Reeves for instance has had extensive training at prestigious gun schools. So, he knows what is correct. But, he still has to do what the director tells him to do (no matter how stupid) in order to get the visual effect and screen shot that the director needs to tell the story. There are also directors (such as David Mamet) who have extensive deep gun knowledge. But, they have to subordinate that to movie making. Movies must be easy for the audience to follow. Otherwise, the audience won't be satisfied. View YouTube.com videos of real gun fights. Hard, if not impossible, to follow, right?The narrator has to explain what is happening. You have to view in slow motion. You have to stop frames and carefully examine to see the details. The narrator has to circle or draw arrows to things to direct your attention to important objects.That's why fencing is not a money making Olympic sport. The TV audience can't follow the action. So, the networks won't televise it.

I carry a set of files in my range bag to deburr the students' pistols. Because students will bring pistol that have sharp edges. If the student refuses to deburr his pistol and refuses to allow you to deburr his pistol because it will ruin the resale value of the pistol, diplomatically explain to the student that his attitude is wrong. And have Band-Aids for the student when he cuts himself. The student will also develop bad habits in an attempt to avoid the sharp edges. Point these out to the student to motivate him to deburr his pistol.

“Every time I teach a class, I discover I don't know something.”-- Clint Smith, Director of Thunder Ranch

***** Pedagogy *****

Don’t rush to cover all of the material. It is better to ensure the student understands what has been taught and leave the rest for next time. If the student doesn’t want to come back next time, that’s their choice. -- Nathan Goode, NGInvestigations.com

May I suggest you read "Teaching Women To Shoot A Law Enforcement Instructor's Guide" by Vicki Farnam & Diane Nicholl ISBN-10: 0965942295ISBN-13: 978-0965942294and "Women Learning to Shoot: A Guide for Law Enforcement Officers" by Diane Nicholl and Vicki Farnam ASIN: B00C9PZK2W Because you will be teaching women: daughters, sisters, friends, etc. The basic pedagogical problem is that women (generally speaking) do not have spatial perception as men do. That means that women do not automatically generate pictures in their minds, while men will instantly and automatically picture things that are described to them (even without sufficient detail, they fill in the blanks automatically, they make assumptions [sometimes very dangerous assumptions]). So, when you describe sight alignment and sight movie, the guy automatically pictures a straight line from his eye to the rear sight to the front sight to the target. Thus, aligning the pistol with the line of sight. The gal usually will not get such a picture automatically. You must describe in enough detail to allow her to generate such a picture in her mind. No, it's not easy. Teaching is a difficult task.

A Comparison of Affordable Concealed Carry Insurance Planshttp://misfiresandlightstrikes.com/2018/05/31/a-comparison-of-affordable-concealed-carry-insurance-plans/ “First Dollar” Coverage is the most important thing. If you don't have the money up front, you're not going to have a very good defense. Reimbursements may or may not be made depending on whether or not you are convicted. And if you don't have the money up front to hire a competent attorney, private investigators, and expert witnesses, you might get convicted. Oh, innocent people get convicted all the time. In America, you get the justice you pay for.